On August 10, Cathy and Mandy hosted #pb10for10 and gathered many rich resources from educators all over the world. I had so much fun looking at other people's book lists, that I just had to join in, even though I'm more than a tad embarrassed I didn't make the actual deadline. But a huge thank you to these ladies for hosting and organizing everyone's post!
The years before this, the 10 books I chose always revolved around one big idea. This year is sort of the same, but with a small twist -- I have sub-categories of books as well. The big umbrella my books fall under this year is "Books I Will Share in the First Two Weeks of School." There are 4 sub-categories for these books. And the books are some old favorites as well as some amazing new favorites.
Picture Books that Help Set Expectations for Classroom Climate / Celebrating our Differences
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4) Crankee Doodle - written by Tom Angleberger. This picture book is just a hoot! We have two main characters, and one is a huge whiner. As Angleberger has fun with how the song, "Yankee Doodle Came to Town," originated, we as readers can learn a lot through humor about how not to approach problems and boredom. The surprise ending is just icing on the cake!
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6) Moving Day - poems by Ralph Fletcher, and
7) Oh Brother! - poems by Nikki Grimes
Both of these books tell stories through poetry, and would be a great introduction to the concept of novel in verse. Equally important, both stories have beautiful language embedded within their poetry. This will be a wonderful way to look at word choice in their own writing.
Picture Books That Promote Gathering Pieces of Life for Future Writing
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Picture Books That Promote Life Science and Word Study
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9) How to Clean a Hippopotamus: A Look at Unusual Animal Partnerships - written by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. Symbiotic. I love that word, and it turns out with our new state standards, it is a word my 5th graders will need to know as well. Steve Jenkins is a prolific writer of nonfiction so this will be a great way to introduce my classes to him as a nonfiction author. More importantly, we will begin our word study with a word observation of "symbiotic." We will notice many things together about this word, and after that, I will read the book. After reading this book and sharing the unique ways animals form partnerships, we will revisit the word to add more thinking.
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So there you have it - my very belated #pb10for10. I wish for you and your students many wonderful reading experiences this year!
Thanks to Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers for co-hosting the kidlit version of the meme, It's Monday, What Are You Reading?